in brief…

Mystery shopping research conducted by Digital UK has showed that, while the standard of advice in independent stores is generally high, those who are licensed to the ‘digital tick’ scheme provide better service to customers enquiring about digital television and switchover than those who are not.
Micromark, the sponsor of National Home Security Week, has announced the dates for this year’s campaign as 23- 29 August 2008.
Disposable incomes have fallen to their lowest for five years according to the Ernst & Young Annual Discretionary Income Study. An average household’s monthly discretionary income is now £772.79, compared with £909.84 in 2003/04. After household bills and tax, it found the typical family had less than 19.96% of its gross income remaining, compared with 28.38% in 2003.
A joint forecast report by GfK and The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organiser of the International CES in Las Vegas, showed that consumer electronics will produce a healthy growth of 9.4% in 2008 over 2007, while the Asia and Oceanic region will grow by 16.5% in value in 2008, but the mature markets of North America and Western Europe will witness a slowdown in 2008.